Today was really boring. But, since I didn't get to work today (I'm still irked about that) I stayed up until 2 AM and got to talk to my brother and my parents on Skype. Again, seeing family is always good!
I finally crawled into bed and fell asleep hard. I then woke at 6 AM to the sound of my alarm. Oops, forgot to turn it off last night. Since I had nothing to do, I stayed in bed until 9 AM! That's super late! Finally I decided it was time to get up and get moving. I got dressed and thought it would be fun to go for a bike ride. Also, the bottles I have bought were piling up and I needed to return them. In Germany there is a different deposit depending on the size of the bottle and what it's made of. A 1,5 L plastic bottle, for example has a deposit of 0,25 euro and a 1 L glass beer bottle is between 0,15 and 0,08 euro. I packed everything into my backpack and another bag, threw it on my bike and off I went. Here's a picture of the bike I bought. Not bad for only 50 euro plus it came with the basket which is great for shopping.
I returned the bottles at the Kaufland in Schloß Neuhaus and got 3,61 euro back. I went and bought a few things while I was there too though so I would up spending 2 euro on top of that. I bought some sugar because I like sugar in my coffee but apparently no one else does so I need my own. But at work, cream is always there. I also bought some laundry detergent because I needed to wash some clothes, and I finally found the laundry room on this campus. I mean, it's not a huge place, but can you believe that they only have one washer and one dryer? On my way back to my apartment, I took a different route and wound up a bit lost. Finally, I ended up in town, meaning I passed my apartment by maybe 15 or 20 minutes. Oops, I turned around and made it back.
I asked one of my neighbors a week or so ago if I could use his wireless and he told me all I had to do was go to the office and ask for a wireless router. It was that easy. Well, except for my landlord's weird hours. Since I wasn't working today, I had time to go in and see her though. I got the router and it's all set up! I can finally have internet on my iPod, my phone, and my laptop all at once and without sitting directly at my desk! Strange, I'm still at the desk writing this though.
After setting it up, I thought it might be a good idea to clean a bit, I hate a messy room. Cleaning this place is pretty easy, with how small it is, but I still had some work to do. I put all my clothes away and gathered the dirty ones. I went to the laundry room and, of course, the washing machine was full. It still had half an hour on it so I went back to my room and spent some time online (of course.) Finally I went back and it was done. Sadly, the clothes were still in it. In America, it's no problem to remove someone's clothes but I felt awkward about it. I waited for maybe ten minutes but finally worked up the nerve to move this person's clothes. Yeah ... just as they were walking in. Talk about awkward. You never really understand the meaning of the word until you find yourself holding a guy's underwear and they walk in. Ahhh! I apologized but he seemed OK with it, took his things and left. Way to make friends when living in a new place Gabi.
People here nearly never use the dryer, they all have clothing racks to hang their things on and let them air dry. I, however, have neither the means or the patients to do this at the moment so when my laundry was done, I moved it into the dryer and started the cycle. It takes about an hour and a half I think with the dryer and much longer with the rack.
When I was moving my things into the dryer, an Asian girl came in and was excited that I was finished and loaded her things into the dryer. Really though, why do they only have one?
For dinner, I made cheese tortellini, simple because all I had to do was boil them and enjoy! I had dinner early, maybe 5 PM or so. My laundry was finally done and it was like a small victory dinner. I cleaned my room again, laundry made a big mess, and just kind of sat there. I don't know what to do half the time. Especially without work, it gets boring. I heard some boys joking in the kitchen and I joined them. It was Marc and two other boys from the floor. We talked about our weekends and how I can't legally work here yet and we had fun. There is a new girl on the floor too. She's from Canada (one of the French parts) and her name is Kathrine (but she pronounces it really weird.) She speaks French and English but her English is hard to understand. She also had a friend stop by who was from the USA (Marc informed me) but I didn't get to meet her and I think she lives a floor up from us.
I also talked to Marc about going to the Frankfurt area this weekend. I'll be visiting my second cousin since it's a three day weekend and Marc is headed down there anyways! Yay! More adventures in Germany!
A few people left the kitchen but I stayed with Marcus (the Swedish guy) and another German guy. I felt so old. But the German guy is studying Automotive Engineering in Germany and he works on a "Formula Student" team, like Formula SAE at Tech. Awesome! He is also the leader of the "Suspension Team", I think that means the whole chassis, but maybe it's specifically the suspension. Awesome-er! He kind of reminded me of Griffin Brooks, a friend of mine from my first summer at Tech, looks just like him even. Awesome-ist!
Wow, I think I just made up some words. Maybe it's time for bed, or to just walk away from the computer. Since I don't have work tomorrow, maybe I should check out a bar...? The Irish Pub would be nice, every Englishman in Paderborn is there, and there's a lot here because of the British army base. But, man, I hate going places alone. Especially social places ... What is something were to happen...? Decisions, decisions ...
I think I'll start with a beer here and maybe it'll help me gain some courage to head out on another adventure. Stay tuned. You may be in for a good story tomorrow!
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